Anand takes the first two games

8/12/2005 – Alexander Grischuk, one of the young turks challenging the supremacy of the top players, started badly at the Chess Classic in Mainz, when he ran into the rapid chess firewall of Vishy Anand. The score: 2:0 for Anand. Meanwhile Peter Svidler took a 1½:½ lead in his Chess960 match against Zoltan Almasi. Report and pictures...

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Chess
Classic: Anand leads 2-0

Alexander Grischuk is a very popular young GM, not just because of his hunky
looks. He is also something of a devil-may-care attacking player, with a style
the audience loves. And tonight Grischuk went after reigning Chess Classic
champion Vishy Anand with a vengeance. But fighting spirit and determination
is not enough when you are faced with the world's greatest rapid chess genius.

Black is in a spot of trouble, since 26...Kxg7 27.Qh3 h5 28.Nd4 Rf6 29.Nfxe6+
Nxe6 30.Nxe6+ Kg8 31.Nf4 is clearly better for White. Maybe he should have
gone for the defensive 26...Rf7. But our Grischuk is not one for timid measures.
26...Rxf4!? 27.Bxf4 a3? 28.Bxe5 dxe5 29.b4 Na4 30.Rd3 Rc8 31.Qd2 Qc7
32.Rxa3 Nc3+ 33.Kb2. Anand has ridden out the attacking probes of
his opponent and now has the exchange and a pawn to carry him to victory. A
final desperate attempt by Grischuk is coolly parried: 33...Nxe4 34.fxe4
Bxe4 35.Rh2 Bf6 36.Rc3 Qb7 37.Qd6 Kxg7 38.Ba6 1-0. [Click
to replay]

Chess960 – Svidler defeats Almasi

Zoltan Almasi challenging reigning Chess960 champion Peter Svidler

Challenger Zoltan Almasi, who has ambitions of becoming the first Hungarian
world champion in history, took on last year's Chess960 winner Peter Svidler,
also with the elan and enthusiasm of a serious pretender. But he ran into bad
luck. “I am very disappointed, especially about the second game,"
he said at the press conference after the round. "It was completely winning,
but I somehow managed not to win – unbelievable! But hey, tomorrow is
a new day, which will give me new chances.” His opponent Peter Svidler
agreed: “Yes, I got lucky in both games, Almasi could have scored 1.5
points tonight”.

It could have gone either way: Almasi vs Svidler

FiNet Open – Sokolov and Shirov lead

There were over 200 participants in the open section of the Mainz Chess Classic.
It is an immensely strong field, with five players over 2700: Etienne Bacrot
(2728), Alexander Morozevich (2728), Levon Aronian (2724), Ivan Sokolov (2717)
and Alexey Shirov (2705). After them come 11 grandmaster with a 2600+ rating,
and top women players Alexandra Kosteniuk, Natalia Zhukova, Antoaneta Stefanova
and Maya Chiburdanidze.

After five rounds two players had a 100% score: Ivan Sokolov from the Netherlands
and Alexey Shirov of Spain. Levon Aronian, Michal Krasenkow, Etienne Bacrot,
Rafael Vaganian and Alexander Graf scored 4.5 points. The best female players
are Maya Chiburdanidze, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Natalia Zhukova and Antoaneta
Stefanova, all with four points. There are six more rounds to go on Friday.
The winner of the FiNet Open gets to play the Chess960 World Championship match
against the winner of Svidler-Almasi next year.

One of the top seeds: Alexander Morozevich

Always dangerous: Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu

Oh the intensity: Dutch GM Ivan Sokolov

One of the world top-ten players in Mainz: Levon Aronian

The hero of Dortmund: Arkadij Naiditsch

Legendary women's world champion Maia Chiburdanidze

Lithuanian IM Viktorija Cmilyte

Elisabeth Pähtz and Alexandra Kosteniuk

Livingston Chess960 Computer Chess World Championship

The first Livingston Chess960 Computer Chess World Championship started with
19 programs playing seven rounds on Thursday and Friday. The big surprise was
that after the first four rounds the leader was not the German program
Shredder! In the third round Shredder was beaten by “Spike”, developed
by local programming talents Volker Böhm and Ralf Schäfer. The winner
of this tournament will be able to play a match against the winner of the match
Almasi-Svidler next year.

See also

11/28/2018 – The moment we've all been waiting for! Live games (for Premium members) from the 2018 World Championship match in London. Every two games will be followed by a rest day until Game 12 (if necessary) on November 26th which will be preceded by an additional rest day. All rounds start at 15:00 UT (London time) / 16:00 CEST / 10:00 EST. If needed there would be a rapid tiebreak match on Wednesday, November 28th. | Photos: Patricia Claros

See also

8/27/2018 – Live games and commentary from Saint Louis! Fabiano Caruana, Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian tied for first place, while Caruana also tied for fourth place in the Grand Chess Tour standings with Wesley So, forcing a playoff match to be held on Tuesday. | Graphic: Saint Louis Chess Club

Video

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